Save the Tiger (1973)

User Rating:

6.9/10   

Director:

John G. Avildsen

Writer:

Steve Shagan (writer)

Release Date:

21 July 1973 (Sweden)

Genre:

Drama

Tagline:

Jack Lemmon in his most important dramatic role since "The Days of Wine and Roses."

Plot:

A businessman's professional struggles begin to conflict with his personal life over the course of two days.

Plot Keywords:

Businessman | Fashion Show | Beach | Suit | Tie

Awards:

Won Oscar. Another 1 win & 5 nominations

Cast

Jack Lemmon	...	Harry Stoner
Jack Gilford	...	Phil Greene
Laurie Heineman	...	Myra
Norman Burton	...	Fred Mirrell
Patricia Smith	...	Janet Stoner
Thayer David	...	Charlie Robbins
William Hansen	...	Meyer
Harvey Jason	...	Rico
Liv Lindeland	...	Ula (as Liv Von Linden)
Lara Parker	...	Margo
Eloise Hardt	...	Jackie
Janina	...	Dusty
Ned Glass	...	Sid Fivush
Pearl Shear	...	Cashier
Biff Elliot	...	Tiger Petitioner (as Biff Elliott)
Ben Freedman	...	Taxi Driver
Madeline Lee	...	Receptionist
rest of cast listed alphabetically:
Barton MacLane	...	(clips from 'High Sierra') (archive footage)
Tony Regan	...	Man at show (uncredited)
Leoda Richards	...	Woman at show (uncredited)
Jeffrey Sayre	...	Man at Show (uncredited)
Ken Weiner	...	Movie Patron (uncredited)

Directed by
John G. Avildsen

Writing credits (in alphabetical order)
Steve Shagan		writer

Produced by
Edward S. Feldman	....	executive producer
Martin Ransohoff	....	producer
Steve Shagan	....	producer

Original Music by
Marvin Hamlisch

Cinematography by
James Crabe		(as Jim Crabe)

Film Editing by
David Bretherton

Casting by
Caro Jones

Art Direction by
Jack T. Collis		(as Jack Collis)

Set Decoration by
Ray Molyneaux

Makeup Department
Harry Ray	....	makeup artist

Production Management
Frank Baur	....	production manager

Second Unit Director or Assistant Director
Ronald L. Schwary	....	second assistant director (as Ron Schwary)
Christopher N. Seiter	....	assistant director (as Christopher Seiter)

Art Department
Donald B. Nunley	....	property master (as Don Nunley)

Sound Department
Bud Alper	....	sound
Robert Knudson	....	sound (as Robert I. Knudson)

Camera and Electrical Department
Ross A. Maehl	....	gaffer (as Ross Maehl)
John Murray	....	key grip
Jack Willoughby	....	camera operator

Costume and Wardrobe Department
John A. Anderson	....	wardrobe
Joseph Magnin	....	fashion show wardrobe

Editorial Department
David Ramirez	....	assistant editor

Music Department
Marvin Hamlisch	....	conductor

Other crew
Pat Quinn	....	fashion show consultant
Ray Quiroz	....	script supervisor

Production Companies

• Filmways Pictures
• Cirandinha Productions
• Jalem Productions

Distributors

• Paramount Pictures (1973) (USA) (theatrical)
• Cinema International Corporation (CIC) (1974) (Finland) (theatrical)
• Columbia Broadcasting System (CBS) (1976) (USA) (TV) (original airing)
• Paramount Home Entertainment (Spain) (2005) (Spain) (DVD)
• Paramount Home Entertainment Finland (2006) (Finland) (DVD)
• Paramount Home Entertainment (2007) (Netherlands) (DVD)
• Paramount Home Video (1994) (USA) (VHS)
• Paramount Home Video (2005) (USA) (DVD)

Runtime:

100 min

Country:

USA

Language:

English | Spanish

Color:

Color

Aspect Ratio:

1.66 : 1

Sound Mix:

Mono

Certification:

UK:15 (re-rating) (2005) | UK:AA (original rating) | Canada:18A (Ontario) | Australia:M | Finland:K-16 | Sweden:15 | USA:R

Filming Locations:

Downtown, Los Angeles, California, USA

Company:

Filmways Pictures

Trivia:

'Jack Lemmon' was in Europe filming Avanti! (1972) for director Billy Wilder when this film was edited and scored. A print was flown to show Lemmon and he invited Wilder to see it. Afterwards, Lemmon asked for Wilder's opinion. Wilder advised one change, cut out the scene in the film where Lemmon's character visits his mistress early in the story. Wilder felt it slowed down the momentum of the story. The scene was cut, the picture was released to box office success and Lemmon won a second Oscar.

Goofs:

Continuity: Harry wipes Fred's face almost completely clean of the red body paint. In a subsequent shot, Fred's face is covered with red paint again.

Quotes:

[Referring to the arsonist and the hooker]
Phil Greene: Professionals, Charlie and Margo. One starts the fires, the other one puts them out.

Movie Connections:

Referenced in "Remington Steele: Sensitive Steele (#4.16)" (1986)

Soundtrack:

I Can't Get Started

The American Dream may be lost, but thankfully not Lemmon's dream performance

This is a well-crafted movie, directed in 1973 by John G Avildsen in a conventional, theatrical manner, harking back to social dramas of 10 or 20 years before, but reflecting the more uncertain '70s in its unresolved ending.

Jack Lemmon delivers a brilliant, Oscar-winning performance as Harry Stoner, a middle-aged man at the end of his tether, who confuses his personal midlife crisis, and the failure of his fashion business, with what he sees as the USA's moral decline in the post-war years. Obsessed with the lost cameraderie of his active service in the war, with the baseball and jazz giants of yesteryear, and with the slain and fallen idols of the 60s (Kennedy, King, Monroe etc), he sleepwalks into his own moral abyss of an arson plot, comforting himself that he is no worse than the times in which he lives.

Lemmon's character is countered by those of Phil Greene, his business partner, convincingly played by Jack Gilford, and Meyer (William Hansen), the firm's veteran, expert cutter and refugee from Nazism. Phil does not suffer Harry's sense of disillusion, because he is too down-to- earth to have experienced the illusion in the first place; Meyer, also, despite superficial discontent with the changing times, gains strength from his skill and family life.

For me, the main theme here is the familiar one of the lost American Dream, and the film brings to mind the final lines of the seminal exploration of that theme, the Great Gatsby - "So we beat on, boats against the current, borne back ceaselessly into the past." Harry's American Dream is not of a golden future, but of a golden past; it isn't lost, it simply never existed. But, that said, in this movie thematic analysis definitely takes second place to appreciation of Lemmon's bravura performance.